With Panda Cloud Antivirus, Panda Security is introducing a new protection model that utilizes a thin-client agent and server architecture which processes and blocks malware more efficiently than locally installed signature-based products. By moving the entire malware scanning and determination process to the cloud and applying non-intrusive interception techniques on the client architecture, Panda Cloud Antivirus is able to provide advanced protection against new and unknown viruses with a lightweight thin-client agent that barely consumes any PC resources.

Traditional antivirus products for PCs rely on multiple locally installed technologies which intercept each file at different layers (entry vector, file system and execution) and scan them using various techniques (antivirus, heuristics, intrusion prevention, behavioral analysis, etc.). This process results in heavy usage of local PC memory and CPU resources, negatively impacting performance. The Panda Cloud Antivirus thin-client agent introduces a new philosophy for on-access asynchronous cloud-scanning. It combines local detection technologies with real-time cloud-scanning to maximize results while minimizing resource consumption. This optimized model blocks malicious programs as they attempt to execute, while managing less dangerous operations via non-intrusive background scans.

Panda Cloud Antivirus includes local and remote antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-rootkit, heuristics and goodware cache, while only consuming an average of 17 MB of RAM and 50 percent of the PC performance impact as compared to the industry average.

Installation went smoothly. Nice interface. Made it to 7% completed before it quit with an "Unexpected Error." No additional information was returned. Event log shows scan started, and one detection: a benign technician's password cracking utility which I already knew about.

Hi Barney. This is Sean-Paul from Panda. Thanks for trying out Cloud Antivirus. This problem really sounds like an infected install or some other problem not related to Panda. Are you still having problems?

a) You have to let it do a lengthy baseline scan before running an on-demand.b) Seems like nothing lower than XP SP2 will work.c) Win 7? Not yet, afaict.d) It wanted me to remove ESET. Fat chance. (I disabled it for testing.)e) I really hated the automatic deletion of what the 'Cloud' decides is malware.

Uninstalled it. I'll stay on my own cloud for now....

Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code is a violent psychopath and knows where you live.

it appears that Panda has been trying to fix the major blunders involved in (e), the critical issue,

"We've concentrated on fixing detection/disinfection/false positive issues with this Beta2 as well as some added functionality for managing the Recycle Bin (undo option). For Beta3 we'll concentrate on more functionality and added platforms (64bits, W7)." (page 10)

and that the new Beta2, out today, might have more acceptable behaviour. The original Beta was more an Alpha, not well thought out in regard to quarantine and deletion, and folks may be able to try out the new Beta2 safely after the Wilder's crew have a few days looking it over.

Panda always over-promises and under-delivers. Initial releases are plagued with bugs and installation errors like outlined above and even when they've fixed those problems you're still left with a product that has lousy detection rates with lots of false positives.

...and that the new Beta2, out today, might have more acceptable behaviour. The original Beta was more an Alpha, not well thought out in regard to quarantine and deletion, and folks may be able to try out the new Beta2 safely after the Wilder's crew have a few days looking it over.

Thanks Steven. Yes, we just released version 2.0 today, which fixed a number of critical issues. The full scoop is up on the Cloud Antivirus blog: http://blog.cloudant...irus-beta2-released/ Also, keep an eye out for beta 3.0 in early fall. As you mentioned, we'll be addressing the 64bits, Windows7 issue in that version.

I’m happy to tell you that we’ve officially launched Cloud Antivirus out of beta as of today. We’ve all been working hard over the last several months to bring you a number of key updates, including an updated user interface, improved performance, real-time access to the latest malware detected in our user community, new Web site and online support forums. We’ve also made Cloud Antivirus compatible with Windows 7/64 bits, which was one of the top requests we received throughout the beta.

The download if you’re interested (it’s free!) is available on the Cloud Antivirus site: http://www.cloudantivirus.com. Also, if you have any questions or technical issues, please post them here and I’ll be sure to address them openly here in the forum.

Panda Could Antivirus Free is always available for free for personal and non-profit use only. Panda Cloud Antivirus Pro, on the other hands, typically costs $29.99 for one year. However, now everyone can get six months of Panda Cloud Antivirus Pro for free:

After the file downloads, run it and it will begin to download Panda Cloud Antivirus to your computer. After installation has finished (take note during installation: the options to install Panda Toolbar and to set Yahoo as your default search engine are enabled by default - turn these two options off if you don't want them) you should see a popup asking you to active Panda Cloud Antivirus Pro:

Click on "Activate Panda Cloud Antivirus PRO" and once it has finished activating, you can use Panda Cloud Antivirus Pro for free for the next six months!